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“Oh, we’re not dating,” I rush to assure her. “Just friends. Boone visits my brother Aiden at the children’s hospital and he got me a ticket for tonight’s game.”
Tillie nods effusively. “Yes! Boone is getting the other guys on the team to visit too. Coen went last weekend with him.” Her expression softens, her gaze jumping between me and Harlow. “Those poor kids. He came home after and was just shook.”
Harlow reaches over and touches my arm. “Boone said Aiden has leukemia.”
Tillie’s hand presses against her chest. “Oh,” she laments.
I smile at both women. “It’s been a long battle but he had a bone marrow transplant and by all appearances, it seems to be working.”
“That’s wonderful,” Harlow exclaims.
“Science is freaking amazing,” Tillie murmurs.
“So amazing,” I agree.
“Has Aiden been to a game yet?” Harlow asks.
I shake my head. “He’s not been able to while getting treatment but as soon as he’s well, I’m bringing him. I FaceTimed him a few times tonight so he could see everything. I honestly feel guilty being here without him but I’ll admit, this was an amazing experience.”
“Your first time?”
“Is it that obvious?” I ask with a laugh.
“You look flushed like you just came off a roller coaster,” Tillie says with a grin.
“That’s what the entire game felt like. Back and forth, up and down. Absolute nonstop excitement. I didn’t come tonight being that big a fan of the sport, but I’m walking out one.”
Both women laugh but Tillie more than Harlow. “I didn’t know anything about hockey until I started dating Coen.”
“How about you?” I ask Harlow.
“Oh, I was a total fanatic before I met Stone.”
My eyes catch on a group of players coming into the family lounge, and Boone is among them. He’s laughing at something one of them says, but his gaze sweeps the room at the same time, stopping when it lights on me. He says something to his friends and veers over. Harlow and Tillie both turn that way, watching silently as players spill into the room.
I smile as Boone approaches and the smile he gives back is practically blinding.
“Well,” Tillie says in a low voice. “Someone’s happy to see someone.”
I’m not even sure what that means, but I can’t put forth any effort to figure it out because I’m spellbound by Boone’s gaze.
CHAPTER 7
Boone
I’m not exactlysure what it means that I feel like my cup is overflowing when Lilly smiles at me, but it takes the high I’m floating on after winning a hard-fought game and launches me into the stratosphere.
I didn’t look at her often during the game but I did sneak a few peeks when I could, and I fucking dug how much she seemed to be enjoying herself. She screamed and cheered, watched the big center-ice screen at the replays and booed along with the crowd when they got cranky after a perceived bad call.
I came off the ice and onto the bench one time after we scored—Coen caught a rebound and did a backhanded scoop of the puck right over the goalie’s shoulder—and Lilly was jumping up and down and high-fiving the people to her left and right. As I swung my legs over the wall, our eyes connected and she put her fist right up to the glass. I gave it a quick bump with my gloved hand before sitting down right in front of her. It’s not the first time I’ve had friends or family members sit behind our team’s bench but it’s the first time I’ve ever actually acknowledged someone so blatantly. It was a quick move, nothing more than a two-second tap of our hands with plexiglass between and yet it seemed like such a monumental action.
I keep my smile friendly and warm as I walk toward Lilly but I let myself appreciate seeing her for the very first time without her work uniform. Yeah… she’s pretty, but tonight she’s more so with her hair and makeup done. Her hair is a lustrous, shiny chocolate brown, curled into soft waves that hang down her back. Her eyebrows are finely arched and those crystal blue eyes, framed by a cloud of dark hair, are almost shocking in their beauty. Those were downplayed by the shadow her ball cap threw over them or the mask she wore at the hospital, but the one thing I missed in it all was the smattering of freckles over her nose and cheeks. They’re nowhere else on her face, the rest of her skin creamy with the freshness of youth.
Lilly isn’t just pretty, she’s a fucking knockout. She’s dressed casually in a sweater and jeans, not too tight but not overly baggy. Nothing to call attention to herself and yet who needs fancy clothes with a face like hers?
Before I look like a perv, I force my eyes away, happy to see Harlow and Tillie keeping her company. When I reach them, I offer both ladies an appreciative smile before turning to Lilly. “Well… what did you think of your first game?”
“It was amazing,” she gushes. “I can follow it so much easier than on TV too.”
